Computer Animation: Faculty

University of Tennessee (Communication Design). Jim has been a senior animator with Rowland Productions, Inc., and senior art director, animator and creative director for The McAmis Agency. His clients include TNN, A&E, HGTV, Time Warner, CBS, NBC, ABC affiliates, University of Tennessee. He is the recipient of numerous ADDY® awards, and received a First Place Gold Award for Computer Animation, New York Festivals. He is a member of the Advisory Board for 3D Magazine.

Dominic Avant, B.F.A.

Rhode Island School of Design (Illustration). Dominic was employed at Cecropia Inc. in Orlando, FL where he was the Assistant Animator for the video game The Act. His professional experience includes conducting painting and drawing workshops at Manor Gallery, and Breakdown Animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation in Orlando. Productions he has worked on include Mulan, Tarzan, Emperor’s New Groove, Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear.

Jason Bennett, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design (Computer Animation). Mr. Bennett has been working as a Concept Artist and freelance artist in the gaming industry. His clients include Ubisoft, Take Two, Electronic Arts, THQ, 4mm Games, Paizo, and Wizards of the Coast. Recent projects include THQ's Homefront and Irrational's Bioshock: Infinite. He has developed games on console, PC, mobile and social platforms. Jason continues to draw and paint regularly outside of his personal work, which has been shown at fine art spaces throughout the greater NYC area.

Jeremy Cantor, B.F.A.

Marywood University, Scranton, PA (Illustration & Computer Science). Mr. Cantor has been animating professionally for nearly twenty years. He completed a 7-year stint as an Animation Supervisor at Sony Imageworks and previously held that title at Tippett Studio in Berkeley, CA. His past film credits include Starship Troopers, Hollow Man, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Evolution. Prior to Tippett, Mr. Cantor worked as an artist and animator in the games industry at various companies including Sega and Malibu Interactive. He has had 3 short films in touring animation festivals and has taught CG Character Animation classes at various venues including CalArts in Valencia for six years, Gnomon school of VFX, the Academy of Art in San Francisco, and M.I.T. He co-authored a book entitled Inspired 3D Short Film Production in 2004, which includes imagery from several Ringling graduates and an interview with Jim McCampbell. Jeremy headed up the animation department at Insomnia Games in Burbank and then relocated to Denmark to serve as the Animation Director and CG Animation Instructor at Truemax Studios/Academy. He later found work animating on the CG feature Sunshine Barry & The Disco Worms at Radarfilm in Copenhagen. After two years in Europe, Mr. Cantor returned to the States and has been animating at Industrial Light and Magic ever since. His ILM credits include Transformers 2, Avatar, Rango, I Am Number 4, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, and Super 8.

Scott Carroll, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design (Major: Computer Animation; Minor: Photography). Scott is a commercial Game Designer and has worked on successful franchises for some of the biggest Publishers in the electronic entertainment industry including: Skylanders (Activision Blizzard), Forza Motorsport (Microsoft Game Studios), and Medal of Honor (Electronic Arts). He started his game industry career in the Support Department (QA /Production) and worked his way into Development as a Game Designer where he learned the finer points of Level Design/Layout, Scripting, and System Design. Scott taught GA240 (Programming for Artists) at Ringling College: a technical class that covers a broad range of topics including Scripting, Tool Development, System Design, and Production Pipelines.

Jamie DeRuyter, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design (Computer Animation). Five years of 3D animation and effects production experience and eight years of education related to the Computer Animation industry. Former animator, The Pixel Factory; Lighting and Rendering Supervisor, Victory FX; Kleiser-Walczak Construction Company; and Visual BookProductions.

Jon di Venti, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design (Illustration). Professional experience: Character artist, Animated StoryBoards, Ltd., New York, NY; freelance illustrator (editorial, book, advertising and character design). Jon is the recipient of various awards, including two Best of Ringling Juried Student Shows and Best Junior Illustrator Award, Ringling College of Art and Design.

Paul Downs, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design (Computer Animation). Mr. Downs is a professional screenwriter/ animator with ten years of experience spanning film, commercial and video game production. Mr. Downs is currently the Director of Development on the upcoming King Kong film for 20th Century Fox Animation with 21 Laps Entertainment producing, and is writing the screenplay for an in-development feature film he sold to the studio. In addition, he has co-written a live action screenplay that has John Jacobs (Blades of Glory, Anger Management) attached as producer, and Raja Gosnell (Smurfs, Never Been Kissed) attached as director. Concurrently, Mr. Downs has been working at Blue Sky Studios for the past eight years as a Character Animator, where his credits include Robots, the Ice Age franchise, Horton Hears a Who, Rio, Leafmen, and the Academy Award-nominated short No Time for Nuts. Previously, he worked as an animator in the video game industry and helped develop the animation curriculum for Boston University. His thesis "Serenade" has screened at several festivals and won Best in Show at the Palm Beach International Film Festival.

Savannah College of Art and Design (Art Video Production). A veteran Cinematics and Design Lead, Eric has thirteen years in the video game industry and has been credited with 15 titles across 11 platforms and 9 genres. A partial title list includes: Where the Wild Things Are (X-Box 360, PS3, Wii); X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Wii, PS2); Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (PSP); Call of Duty: Roads to Victory (PSP); Algorithmics Rock the World (L-Max); Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PC Unreal engine). Eric comes to Ringling from Amaze Entertainment in Kirkland, WA. www.ericgingrich.com

Cooper Union (Studio Art). Freelance writer and cartoonist. Work published in newspaper, magazine and book form. Work exhibited in New York and Florida. Former assistant director of admissions, Parsons School of Design. Former radio consumer reporter.

Ryland Loncharich, B.F.A.

Savannah College of Art and Design (Interactive Design and Game Development). Over the past seven years of working with Electronic Arts, THQ, Snowblind Studios and Warner Brothers Games, Ryland has created environments that push the limits of the visual standard of the games industry. Ryland’s shipped titles combined have sold more than six million copies and include Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Guardians of Middle Earth, Batman: Arkham City and Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. As he developed games for these popular franchises, he was responsible for vast sections of levels, system development and AAA quality environment assets. As the tools and technology advanced in the games industry, Ryland was a key individual at the studios in applying these changes directly to content creation pipelines and trained groups of professional artists on how to execute efficient art with these new advancements. Sean McLaughlin, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design (Computer Animation). Sean worked for 12 years at Dreamworks Feature Animation as a Lead 3D Character Animator and FX Developer/Animator, assisting in the creation of the Computer Graphics department as well as transitioning Animators from 2D to 3D. He also taught part-time at AnimationMentor.com. Screen credits include the Dreamworks feature films Bee Movie, Over the Hedge, Shark Tale, Shrek 2, Sinbad: Legend of the 7 Seas, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Road to El Dorado, andPrince of Egypt. In 2010, Sean animated on the 3D Looney Tunes theatrical short Rabid Rider for RealFX, and most recently animated on the Academy Award®-winning short The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore for Moonbot Studios.

Billy Merritt, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design (Computer Animation). Billy has been animating at Pixar Animation Studies for over eight years, and has been teaching animation part-time to graduate and undergraduate students at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He also taught part-time at AnimationMentor.com. His experience in film at Pixar includes working on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Cars. In addition to feature work, he has also animated on Toy Story 2 commercials, Monsters Inc., ABC Television interstitials, and the short film Boundin’.

Martin Murphy, B.F.A.

Ringling College of Art and Design (Computer Graphics). Martin has sixteen years of experience in the entertainment industry. He has contributed his talents to feature films, numerous broadcast design packages and commercials, and to the creation of more than twenty games ranging from the arcade and SEGA Genesis era to the current console systems. He comes to Ringling from the position of Senior Producer at Midway Games, where he assisted in the development of an original, multi-platform game concept to a playable prototype ready for production. Prior to his position as Senior Producer, Martin was Midway's companywide Director of Art, shepherding the transition of almost three hundred artists to current generation technologies and fostering collaboration across five development studios to improve product quality and reduce development costs. He previously was an adjunct professor at Columbia College in Chicago where he taught computer animation and portfolio development.

Gary Schumer, B.F.A., M.F.A.

Washington University (Painting; Minor - Drawing); Ohio University (Painting; Minor - Drawing). Previously, Gary has been the Academic Department Director of the Art Institute of Tampa, teaching Drawing and 2D Animation. He has worked as a freelance drawing instructor for Electronic Arts video game producers. Gary worked for Walt Disney Feature Animation from 1996-2004 as Effects Animator, Assistant Animator, Manager of Training Department and Training Coordinator. He has worked on Brother Bear, Mulan, Tarzan, Emperor's New Groove and Lilo & Stitch. He has more than 13 years teaching experience at the Cleveland Institute of Art and Bowling Green State University, and has numerous exhibitions and several publications.

Louisiana Tech University (Graphic Design); Ringling College of Art and Design (Computer Animation). Ron worked for Walt Disney Feature Animation in Orlando, FL, where he worked on Pocahontas, Mulan, Emperor's New Groove, Tarzan, Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear. After Disney, he worked in Ringling College's Department of Computer Animation. Later, Ron worked as a story artist for a new Feature Animation division of Digital Domain (DD) on their first Feature Film, Tembo. His time with DD has been “mind altering and the toughest job that I have ever had...but so rewarding and educational. I now understand that, as artists, we are all trying to tell stories no matter what the media or medium.”

Adjunct Faculty

Nancee Clark, B.A.A., M.F.A.

University of Florida (Painting and Drawing). Nancee has previously taught life study, drawing and painting courses at University of Florida and Santa Fe College where she was tenured. She received a residency grant from the Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy, and a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. She is a two-time recipient of the State of Florida Visual Artist Fellowship, and has exhibited work across the United States and abroad. Her work is included in various public and private collections. www.nanceeclark.blogspot.com

Kurt Karussi, B.F.A., B.S.

Cleveland Institute of Art (Industrial Design); Ohio State University (Mechanical Engineering). Kurt began his design career at Hasbro Toys, Inc. as an associate designer, where as part of the JP Action Figure Group, Kenner Division, he worked on character development and new concepts through ideation sketching, rendering, pattern/sculpting drawings, and digital layouts properties such as Jurassic Park, Small Soldiers and Batman. Later positions included: Senior Project Designer, Boys/Electronics Group, Mattel Toys, Los Angeles, with brands such as Hot Wheels, Caterpillar, Tyco RC, Matchbox, WB, Fisher Price, Nickelodeon and NASCAR; Design Manager, Neurosmith Toys, LLC, Los Angeles; Senior Global Design Manager, Procter & Gamble, Inc., Household Care Business Unit, where he spent three years in Singapore as the studio leader responsible for all design initiatives for southeast Asia and India; Global Retail Marketing and Design Manager, Specialized Bicycle Components, Morgan Hill, CA, where he led development of all global and U.S. in-store marketing and design collateral and developed design programs to enhance and maximize brand representation, while working closely to create design executions that best embrace the cycling community. Kurt recently returned to Venice, FL where he continues to work within the toy industry as a design consultant for companies such as JAKKS Pacific, CDI and Mattel.